It has occurred to me that I have not wittered on about last weekend. So here we go.
NPS round 5, the final round, at Gyrn Moelfre (Powys, Wales). Its a new course, brand new, never ridden… and mostly hugely off-camber grass! So anyway…
Friday I had off work, so I was up and awake at 7am, great :-/ Packed up and off to meet Bob at 1 o’clock. Meeting accomplished we drove up to the venue… it was damp, gray skies and the car park field was wet angled grass (why did I park in there?). Wandered up the course thinking “how the heck do I ride that” a lot. Long course to walk, about an hour to the top. Back to the car and now in torrential rain, I eventually get the ‘scort moving and rag it towards the gate ramp – sliding through with about an inch of clearance I can only bow 😉 Back to travelodge, wash and off to local pub for food. Bed.
Saturday is, as usual with NPSs, all day practice. Thankfully it stayed dry so the course came to my Comp 16s that I couldn’t be arsed to change to Mud3s. Bed. Sunday dawns, its rain most of the night… on with the Mud3s.
Sunday’s one practice run was well slippery. No grip, can’t turn, can’t pedal… can’t ride. I suck! Thankfully most people appeared to have the same problem. So, race runs. Up the hill I go, in plenty’o’time… actually more than plenty ‘cos racing hadn’t even started! *shiver* First run was iffy, I was all over the place and lost the back end on the mid section off camber and crashed. I waited about at the bottom for Bob, who came down faster than me. Bugger! Picked up the bike to walk (the mile!) back to the car and realised I had a flat… which explains the lack of rear end grip 😉
Puncture fixed, second runs. Why did I not put drys on? Anyway, I was going well, actually surprisingly well! But then I got all horrible cross-rutted, flew over the bars and landed on a stone wall. I ended up on my back, legs on top of me with the bike on top of that. I kicked the bike up, sat up and saw the next rider about to run me down… I rolled sideways fast! I rolled down after, being a bit sore. Problem is, when rolling you are going slower so… the front wheel stalled in a hole on the next chute and I went sky-ground-sky-ground-sky-ground. Ooops.
Long wait at the bottom for Bob due to people mullering themselves and an Air Ambulance (get well soon blokie!) but Bob made it down safely and in a faster time too, to come second in women. Go Bob! With that she won the series too. Rockin’! Sadly the wait for prize giving was long long long, so finally at about 7pm I headed home for a 4 hour drive. We do it for fun you know 😉
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